Council’s big legal bill
THE Kingborough Council spent more than $100,000 on legal fees last financial year after councillors increasingly chose to ignore the advice of planning officers.
In 2016-2017, the council paid $101,610 in legal expenses from a total legal bill of $200,468 on planning matters — nearly double its legal spend for the previous year.
Council sources told the Mercury the steep climb in legal costs was because of the increasing number of times councillors were going against the advice of planning officers, which is leaving the council vulnerable to appeals.
On one occasion when councillors defied their planning officers and rejected an application, the case was judged by planning lawyers to be so weak that numerous lawyers declined to take the coun- cil’s case. The council lost a Resource Planning and Appeals Tribunal decision over a proposed development at Dennes Point on North Bruny, another proposal for Roslyn Ave at Kingston Beach was sent for mediation, and the council was forced to settle a proposed micro-brewery development at Allens Rivulet with the proponents because its case was so weak.
Kingborough Mayor Steve Wass said councillors agreed with planning staff on most matters.
“I would say that 99.9 per cent we agree with staff, but sometimes we don’t,” he said.
“And every time it gets appealed, we have to attend and that costs us money.
“So it can be costly, we have our legal person representing us but if we go against the advice, we have to get another opinion.”
The Mercury has been told one recent proposal that went before the council was rejected by councillors who went against the original recommendation of the planning staff.
When the council shopped around to get a planning lawyer to defend its position, multiple practices declined the opportunity, with even Kingborough’s own legal expert admitting the case was weak.
President of the newly formed Kingborough Ratepayers Association Mervin Reed said it was “appalling” that council was spending so much on planning appeals and queried why the council was advertising for a senior planning officer and planning officer at the moment.